In Sophocles's Greek tragedy Oedipus the King, Oedipus discovers that he has unknowingly killed his biological father and marrie
d his birth mother. The horror of this truth causes Jocasta, Oedipus’s wife/mother, to hang herself and Oedipus to stab himself in the eyes. What element of Greek tragedy do these final two acts give expression to?
The elements are Anagnorisis, Catharsis and Peripeteia
Explanation:
This piece of theater written by Sophocles presents several elements of the Greek tragedy, which are: anagnorisis which is the recognition of who is, in the case of Oedipus the murderer of his father, and husband of his mother; the peripeteia
that is the passage to fortune for the misfortune of the hero; the catharsis that is the moment of commotion in the audience, when the hero, who was made for the audience to identify with him, suffers the consequences of his tragic failure with the peripécia. Thus, we have in Oedipus King many elements for the constitution of a work of complete Greek tragedy
